A conspicuous absence: Teaching and research on India in Pakistan

Economic and Political Weekly

Volumn 44, Issue 38, 2009, Pages 57-68

  Akbar Zaidi, S ^a  

^a NONE   (Pakistan)

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EID: 84995923210     PISSN: 00129976     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (21)

1. See Social Science Research Council (SSRC) (2002), Social Science Capacity in South Asia: A Report, SSRC Working Paper, Vol 6, New York
2. and S Akbar Zaidi (2002), "The Dismal State of the S ocial Sciences in Pakistan", Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 37, No 35.
3. The number of universities where social sciences were taught in Pakistan were 11, but may have increased since 2003.
4. The subjects that COSS includes in their list for social sciences are as follows: mass communications/journalism, sociology, philosophy, history, political science, economics, area studies, social work, education, library sciences, geography, P akistan studies, international relations, psychology, law, public administration, archaeology, administrative sciences, defence and strategic studies and Islamic culture. The largest number of MPhil and PhD theses are in economics (246 out of 1,202), followed by psychology (159), the numerous area studies (152), history (143), Pakistan studies (99), political science (92), education (81), and international relations (74). Almost 50% of the theses (597) have been completed at the Qua id-e-Azam university, Islamabad, followed by Karachi university (171) and the University of the Punjab (139).
5. COSS has gone to a great deal of trouble and has made a huge amount of effort to build this database, and while it is probably the only such source available, it needs to be stated that it is very likely that the COSS database under-reports the number of theses. Nevertheless, what is interesting for us is not the exact number of theses in any particular discipline with their specific titles, but some indication of the larger picture. Hence, even if the figure of 41 of the 1202 theses with "India" in their title is off the true fig ure, it is improbable that with additional data, the less than 4% proportion would change very considerably.
6. It is important to underline that these published curricula are often outdated. Often some recent issues and topics do creep in, specially if teachers are creative and enterprising. However, the system to bring about changes in the curricula is highly antiquated and bureaucratic.
7. Interestingly, at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, a private university and the one with the best teaching and academic programme, by far, in economics in Pakistan, unlike state u niversities there is no course which specifically examines Pakistan's economy.
8. See S Akbar Zaidi, op cit, 2001, and S Akbar Z aidi ed. (2003), Social Science in Pakistan in the 1990s, Council of Social Sciences, Pakistan, Islamabad.
9. These observations are being made on the basis of official university of Karachi publications; who teaches what and how they are taught is a different matter altogether. Interviews with students at the political science department at the Karachi university revealed that they had not been taught "anything" on India and none of their teachers was interested in or adequately trained to give even a single general lecture on India's political institutions or on more recent developments. The students did say that their teachers did, derogatively, cite the example of the rise of the Hindu right when it suited them and gave examples of the violation of human rights in Kashmir and did frequently mention the Gujarat pogrom of 2002.
10. See Hassan Gardezi (2003), "Contemporary Socio logy in Pakistan" in S Akbar Zaidi, op cit. As this and the rest of the articles in this collection show, much, if not all, of the teaching has a western orientation and India seldom finds a mention in any subject, in the curriculum or in reading lists. In fact, as I argue in the Introduction to the collection: "while many of the papers compare developments in the west regarding their own discipline, they fail to take cognisance of developments in south Asia, particularly in India", p 5.
11. A quick library search showed that very few of these books actually existed and most had been lost. Moreover, in all libraries visited, there were few new books being added and even fewer ones on India, past or present. One explanation for this is the rise in book prices and lower budgets at the universities, as well as a shift in academic and ideological influence and bias.
12. This Section is based on interviews and discussions with those mentioned in Appendix 1.
13. However, the nomenclature "South Asia" has had a very uneven history and acceptance as is discussed later in this article.
14. Also see S Akbar Zaidi (2001) op cit for the sort of research and writing taking place in history.
15. Also see Ian Talbot (1998), "Pakistan's Emergence", Historiography, Vol IV, Oxford History of the British Empire, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
16. It is worth mentioning, that the two professors I spoke to as part of this study, soon left the public sector Quaid-e-Azam university, and joined the private Lahore university of management sciences, LUMS, at Lahore. While they may have retired and found employment elsewhere, the point is that the individuals who were taking an interest in teaching India at one of Pakistan's best public sector universities, were no longer there to do so.
17. In the course of this study, I asked all the scholars and researchers interviewed if they could think of even one single Pakistani academician who they would call an expert on India. Each and everyone of the respondents said that there was no such scholar in Pakistan. Some mentioned a couple of journalists, but then quickly withdrew these names saying that they were "just journalists" and not academics or researchers.
18. Clearly, in the last few years, there has been a shift following the "war on terror", with numerous books and articles being written on Pakistan's security in this new era. It is difficult to assess the impact of this shift on research at this stage.
19. There is story recounted to me by S Jaffer Ahmad, Director of the Pakistan Study Centre, university of Karachi. In the late 1980s, a PhD student from Amritsar Univer sity had wr itten a letter to t he Pakistan embassy in Delhi asking for the names of books on constitutional issues related to Pakistan. The letter was sent from the embassy to the foreign ministry, then to the home department, followed by the ministry of education and then to the university grants commission, who then forwarded it to the Pakistan study centre. All this took eight months; six months later, a letter of t hanks was received. While all this was in the age prior to email, it is still indicative of the mindset of bureaucrats and of a particular way of thin king.
20. One non-governmental teaching institute also has well-known Indian social scientists on its fac ult y who come and teach frequently.
21. Wagner, Christian (2001), "Sudaasienforschung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Bericht uber eine Besandsaufnahme" (South Asia Research in Germany: A Survey), Internationales Asienforum, Vol 32, No 3-4.